Open Season (1974)

hyped garbage

As Good As It Gets

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

This movie is great. Richard Lynch's performance is superb. He carries this movie. He makes this movie happen. The other members of the cast are fine, but without Richard Lynch, this movie would be okay but not great. The movie offers a compelling story, strong acting, high tension and fast-paced action. There is nothing subtle about this movie. It dramatizes the sadistic cruelty of some people and how depravity can go undetected. This movie also features William Holden in one of his better roles. It's surprising that this movie has not received more attention because it offers what today's audience seem to want: gratuitous violence and sadistic depravity, presented in a neat cinematic package. After watching this movie, you will think twice before sharing a cabin with a bunch of guys who seem like the nicest guys in the world.

Obscure but reasonably solid exploitation effort from the early 70's with a plot and character drawings that actually qualify as disturbing. Undeniably influenced by a number of gritty contemporary survivalist- thrillers, such as for example "Deliverance" and "Straw Dogs", the film narrates the compelling plot about three seemingly ideal and loving family men and their rather unusual annual tradition. Once a year Ken, Greg and Art – three college football buddies and Vietnam veterans – go on a "camping trip"; basically only to do all the nasty stuff their wives and fellow community members would never see them capable of doing. We're talking rape, kidnapping, humiliation, vandalism, extortion and a virulent game of hunting-humans. In the opening sequences already, some college accused the trio of gang-rape, but the school principal made it clear to the girl's mother that the reputation of the trio is stainless and undisputed. During this year's trip, they abducted an adulterous couple and got rid of their car. The unsuspecting victims are subsequently taken to an island in the middle of giant lake, toyed with for some more time, and then 'released' for the hunt. Although influenced by the aforementioned backwoods-survivalist thrillers, "Open Season" is primarily another re-working of the classic and legendary film "The Most Dangerous Game". It's a tense and disturbing film, for sure, but I'm under the impression that it could have been even better. The middle section is slow and even somewhat dull, only because director Peter Collinson insists on emphasizing the anxiety and troublesome position of the hostages. There's also quite a lot of pointless footage of the three anti-heroes boozing and hunting, apparently just to state clear once more that they're mean and ruthless guys. Okay, we get it now! Luckily enough, the wholesome is saved by the virulent climax (hooray for William Holden, as he shows up as one of the previous victims' father out for revenge) and the outstanding acting performances from the entire cast. Peter Fonda, John Phillip Law, Richard Lynch, Alberto de Mendoza and William Holden together in one and the same film makes it absolute priority viewing for every self-respecting cult cinema fanatic.

This was one of the first really well "designed-to-disturb" movies that I ever watched. The impact to the viewer is not achieved through overly-graphic violence, although it is violent in nature, but by craftily inducing empathy for the desperate situation of the hunted, juxtaposed with the bleak portrayal of raw and unrelenting evil exhibited by the group-thinking hunters. This is well done through a meandering sequence of action shots and brilliantly framed by the contrasting peaceful and beautiful North American scenery and a curious and intriguing score. This is not a movie of memorable dialogue but one of highly disturbing action sequence in a sustained act of cruelty. Unfortunately the evil and its impact are far too believable for comfort. The Vietnam allusion and vigilante character (Holden) are peripheral to the essence of the movie and if anything detract, seemingly there to provide an excuse for the exposure of the evil and some end resolution for good, respectively. Whilst this may have been at one point central to the message in the creator's mind, as it worked out neither is warranted given the core impact of the film.

Open Season is a terribly unpleasant melange of The Most Dangerous Game and Deliverance. It was a critical and commercial flop in its day, and was further criticised for wasting the talents of some usually reliable actors like Peter Fonda, William Holden and John Philip Law. I'm a fan of William Holden, and as a completist I was eager to seek out the film. However, having finally tracked it down and watched it, I can honestly say that it was not worth the effort. This is a poor movie indeed.The wafer thin plot has three ex Vietnam vets heading off in the autumn to their remote hunting lodge. En route, they kidnap a young, romantic couple and imprison them once they reach the lodge. After fattening them up and sexually degrading them, the delightful trio turn their prisoners loose and pursue them to their death.The plot is such a nasty concoction of themes that it needed sensitive handling to avoid becoming an exploitation piece. Peter Collinson directs with a sledgehammer, stripping the film of any dignity that it may have had and making it a truly horrid little item. The arrival of William Holden at the end, in a half-decent climactic shootout, is the only moment that the film comes to life, but by then most discerning viewers will have bolted for the exits (if in a cinema) or pressed the stop button (if watching a video or DVD). Open Season is a bad, bad film, offensive and unpersuasive throughout and utterly deserving of all the negative reviews it has received over the years.